Facebook is now easily the world’s number one social networking application in the online world. Current estimates have the number of active users at 65 million, a number that is still growing. One way to harness this growth for yourself is to develop a Facebook application. The reasons for this can be anything ranging from “just for fun” to “making money”. Whatever the reason, it is easy enough to create one if you know how.

An application is a somewhat dynamic product that can be installed on to a user’s profile with their express permission. Once installed, it delivers games, information, entertainment, etc. based on the developer’s intent. Developing such an application is not very hard and requires specialized skill only if you are attempting complicated processes.

Since Facebook is free, the first step is to sign up for an account if you do not possess one. Once this is done, you need to install the developer application provided by Facebook and allow it to have access to your profile. This app allows you to create a Facebook app, store settings and preferences, etc. When creating an app, certain information regarding the app you are creating needs to be submitted. Once you have done this, an API key and secret code unique to your app will be sent to you. You will also receive some sample code which will help you to get started.

You can create simple apps using HTML, but for more functionality and flair, using supported languages like PHP, Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, or Python will take it to the next level while a useful understanding of SSH, MySQL, and UNIX will also come in handy.

If this seems daunting, an excellent developer’s forum will help you to create great Facebook applications rather easily.